Senator: Time to push for mandatory sprinklers at motels

8:16 AM,
Mar. 29, 2014

Point Pleasant Beach, Aftermath Day 3 of the multiple fatality fire at the Mariner's Cove Inn on Broadway in Point Pleasant Beach. Workers on the scene salvage and board the building. 032414 Tom Spader/Staff Photographer

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There were no fire suppression sprinklers installed at the Mariner's Cove Motor Inn, where four guests died, a police source said, and the fatal fire has prompted one leading state senator to say now is the time to push for mandatory sprinklers in all lodging facilities.

The Mariner's Cove Motor Inn - along with more than 200 other motels along the Jersey Shore and hundreds more statewide - was not required to have fire sprinklers under a state law that grandfathered the inns from having to provide the life-saving equipment, fire safety experts and state officials have said.